Yellow fever and Zika virus epizootics and enzootics in Uganda

Abstract

Data of monkey serology are presented which, together with past evidence, support the view that yellow fever (YF) virus circulates in its primary sylvan host populations, i.e., forest monkeys, in an enzootic state in Bwamba County in western Uganda but as a series of epizootics in the forest-savanna mosaic zone of central Uganda. Evidence of an epizootic of Zika virus at the Zika Forest near Entebbe is described which occurred in two episodes, the first (in 1969) apparently following the build-up of non-immune monkey populations since a previous epizootic of 1962–1963 and the second (in 1970) when Aedes africanus biting densities rose. This was followed only 18 months later by an intensive epizootic of YF virus, contradictory to the hypothesis that Zika virus alone would suppress subsequent epizootics of YF virus in nature, at least when redtail monkeys are involved. Conclusions are finally reviewed in the light of more recent evidence of transovarial flavivirus transmission in mosquitoes, pointing out that phlebotomine sandflies also require fresh attention.